The Living Churchyard

David Manning

Many historic churches and chapels are
a haven for wildlife. As building maintenance and conservation measures
can have disastrous consequences for the natural environment, those
responsible for their care need to be aware of the issues involved and
the opportunities for creative management.

At first glance the churchyard is
merely a piece of land surrounding the church building, given a different
status from any garden simply because of its role as the burial ground.
Yet a closer look shows that the relationship is much more complicated
and unique than at first it seems and one which only now conservationists
are beginning to recognise. Not only does the churchyard have a significant
role in terms of local biodiversity and social history but the building/curtilage
relationship is, in fact, vital for those species that dwell in these
special places.

It is generally accepted that Christianity
impacted upon this country around 2,000 years ago. It therefore seems
reasonable to assume that churches sprang up as Christianity spread
throughout the country and that churchyards followed as they were built.
There is little doubt that this was the case and the rest, as the saying
goes, is history. However, what is a little more complicated is the
reasoning behind the siting of many churches. Rather than forcing the
authority of the early Christian church upon the inhabitants of Britain
by destroying old sacred sites and building new ones, in many cases
churches were built into or adjacent to pre-Christian sites of worship,
drawing them into the new faith. Once the church was built, a bank and
ditch would then have demarcated this new sacred area - a separation
which continues today. It could, therefore, be said that in many cases
the churchyard actually predates the church, a statement supported by
recent work from the Conservation Foundation showing that yew trees
could be much older than originally thought. The yew was sacred to pre-Christian
religions, symbolising immortality and knowledge, and was probably the
basis for many ritual sites. The new research has shown that these trees
could live to be many thousands of years old due to their unique ability
to regenerate. The fact that a vast majority of the country's ancient
yews are to be found in churchyards is no coincidence and it is, therefore,
likely that churches and churchyards sprang up which incorporated these
amazing trees. The unique separation of churchyards from their surroundings,
combined with a continuity of management is probably the most important
reason for their value as havens for wildlife today.

As years passed, and especially in the
latter part of the 20th century, the churchyard wall or hedge took on
a very important role. Agricultural intensification and 'improvement',
especially in the form of herbicide and pesticide sprays, combined with
urban sprawl took its toll on the biodiversity of many areas of the
country - so much so that English Nature statistics show that Britain
lost 98 per cent of its semi-natural grassland within approximately
three decades. Yet the churchyard boundary protected the species within,
creating small oases for wildlife across the country.

The main type of habitat found in churchyards
is 'semi-natural grassland', a species-rich habitat, often with a high
floral content. In some cases this may take the form of long meadow
grasses amongst which floral plants such as ox-eye daisy, common poppy
and yellow rattle grow, giving the effect of a hay meadow. In other
cases the grass may be much shorter allowing bird's-foot trefoil or
orchids to grow. This variation in management and subsequent species
diversity make carefully managed churchyards so important. This is now
being recognised and many throughout Britain have now been designated
as Sites of Special Scientific Interest by English Nature.

However, grassland is only one of the many
habitats to be found within churchyards. Headstones in particular have
an ecology of their own, and one of the most overlooked, but intrinsically
important elements of the churchyard is the growth of lichens on the
stones. The different greys, greens and yellows give a sense of age
to the churchyard and a feeling of warmth to the stones. Lichens are
an example of 'symbiosis', the relationship between living organisms
in which each organism depends on the other. Lichens are a mixture of
a fungus and an alga, the fungal body providing the matrix for the alga
to live and the alga providing food for the fungus through photosynthesis.
They are extremely sensitive to change and need a very precise microclimate
in which to survive. This is why you will find different lichen species
on the front, back and tops of headstones. For example, one of the most
common lichen species, the Xanthorias (bright orange) thrive on the
nutrient-rich tops of headstones where bird droppings accumulate. If
a headstone is moved out, as often happened in the 1970s to ease management,
the likelihood is that the lichens will not survive. In Britain we have
around 1,500 different species of lichen and of these 300 can only be
found in rural churchyards, possibly due to the diversity of stone types
and the lower atmospheric pollution levels in rural areas.

One of the most controversial features
of churches and churchyards are bats. These mammals often use church
buildings as a roost and the surrounding area for hunting grounds -
a further example of the role that these sites play in acting as a bridge
between the built and natural environment. All species of bat are protected
under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and it is an offence
to disturb either the animals themselves or their roosts without permission
from English Nature. Whilst this Act has done much for the protection
of bats, they are still very much under threat even in churches. A report
entitled Bats in Churches by The Bat Conservation Trust highlighted
the danger posed by chemical timber treatments and the use of certain
types of flood lighting. The latter can interfere with the animal's
sonar, thus increasing the likelihood of death or injury through crashing
in flight.

Nature conservationists firmly believe
that bats should be left to use the churches as they need to. However,
controversy arises when a large roost is using a church. As bats are
warm-blooded the act of flying and hunting involves the expenditure
of much energy. Therefore, before they set out to hunt at dusk, each
animal minimises its body weight through defecation. If there are several
hundred animals in one church this can have a cumulative effect, especially
when the faeces are combined with urine. Not only can this be a nightmare
for church cleaners but the urine can also have a corrosive affect on
brasses and woodwork.

If bats present a serious problem in a
church and it really is necessary to move them out of the building then
it is important to seek expert advice. Any intervention requires a bat
handling license. The local wildlife trust will have an expert that
can advise, and The Bat Conservation Trust, English Nature and English
Heritage may also be of some help.

It seems obvious that the church and churchyard
fulfils a vital role, not only in the social structure of human communities
but also in the biodiversity of the country. So why, if this role really
is so obvious, do churchyards need special conservation measures? The
problem, as with most environmental issues, stems from human misunderstanding
or ignorance. Traditionally churchyards were managed in much the same
way as any other meadowland, either being grazed by sheep or goats or
mown by scythe two or three times per year with the rights of herbage
going to the incumbent. This is the perfect form of management for this
type of grassland and, indeed, gives it its name of 'semi-natural'.
However, over the past 30 years new expectations for the countryside
have crept in, leading to the uprooting of headstones and the intensification
of mowing regimes. In effect this has destroyed hundreds of acres of
habitat on a national scale and created churchyards that look like municipal
parks or bowling greens, devoid of any botanical interest. The need
to regiment or suburbanise the countryside, combined with the increased
use of machine-made black polished headstones upon which lichens cannot
grow, has turned many ecologically diverse and beautiful churchyards
into depressingly uniform environmental deserts.

Perhaps more alarming still has been the
overall public perception of nature conservation. Advisors on the management
of sites around the country are frequently introduced to so-called 'conservation
areas' within churchyards, most of which are pieces of bramble and rank
grassland that cannot be reached by the mower. When it is pointed out
that their 'conservation area' has little more botanical interest than
the perennial rye grass that covers the rest of the churchyard there
is always a certain amount of surprise. This shows that it is the public
perception of conservation that needs to be changed before any impact
will be seen at grassroots level.

In churchyards we need to recognise that
it is not just the church building or bells that need to be conserved
but also the land around them, and that conservation is not about letting
things grow unchecked but about positive management. In the same way
that buildings start to decay as soon as they are erected and that their
conservation is simply delaying the inevitable, churchyards need to
have constant consistent management if they are to survive as havens
for wildlife in an increasingly ecologically stagnant Britain.

~~~

Recommended Reading

NigelCooper, Wildlife in Church
& Churchyard, Church House Publishing, London,1995

This article is reproduced fromThe Conservation and Repair of Ecclesiastical Buildings, 1999

Author

DAVID
MANNING is the Project Leader
of the Church & Conservation Project. He works nationally advising
on the management and creation of churchyards and sacred sites. His published works include Your Sacred Garden, co-written with Martin Palmer.